and this land that we stand on is ours. Or at least it can be, for only £79.99 Buy It Now.It was the "Your own campsite. Scottish plot of land to camp on" that caught my eye. I was under the impression that I can camp anywhere in Scotland as long as I stay within the rules of the "code". Hmmm, fools and their money.

Oh, and you get to call yourself Laird or Lady. Oh aye? Laird/Lady of what exactly? I suppose you could name your wee plot of land. That might work. What's the Gaelic for "that wee bit of midgie-infested grund wi' the twa trees, whur ra sheep winnae go"?

Personally, I'd rather buy a wee island in the Hebrides and build a Banana Republic. I'd have a private army and everybody would have to call me El Presidente.

Sunday, 23 December 2007

One of the highlights of my telly viewing week was the much-anticipated (by me, at any rate) Battlestar Galactica: Razor. Now, I was never a fan of the original series, finding it just a wee bit too "cheesy" for my taste*.

As I've said before, I like my sci-fi dark, intelligent and, quite frankly, grown-up. (Don't mention the "new" Dr Who. Jeez!) When the "re-imagined" Battlestar Galactica came along, I was hooked. Three seasons later, I still think it's one of the best bits of sci-fi ever. Seek it out, if you can. (3 Seasons in one DVD boxed set for £35. Bargain.)

I was in Summits yesterday and, by some miracle, came away with nothing for myself, just the present for The Boy that I'd gone in looking for in the first place. I must be ill.I somehow managed to ignore the siren's song of the Rab Photon Hoodie (9/10 on the temptation scale) and the Vapour Rise (8/10). Some fondling did take place but I stayed strong and marched resolutely out the door. Either my inner gear monster's sleeping or there's a part of my brain that's finally woken up to the fact that there really is such a thing as too much gear.(Let's just not talk about the Aspira Jacket from last week, right?)I came home to a card from the postie. There's a parcel waiting for me at the sorting office. That'll be the Camp Corsa then.Oh dear.On the bright side, I never even set foot in Tiso's.

Thursday, 20 December 2007

So the latest incarnation of the Trail website is up and the bugs are slowly being ironed out. It's arrival was greeted by much hoo-ha and wringing of hands. Toys were tossed out of the pram and folk hoisted their petticoats and left, vowing never to return. But, of course, they did. Such anguish over what is, after all, a free resource. I've never seen the like.

The Trail-haters on OM were gifted a sitter but even they failed to run with it. Changed days.

The site isn't what I expected but I sort of like it in a retro, back to the late nineties when the internet was young, kind of way. I thought it would be flashier and more like the magazine, which is looking fairly slick these days, but it's not. I can't help feeling that they've dropped the ball a bit and perhaps missed a golden opportunity to pull in more readers. If, indeed, that's what the plan was. But then I could say the same about TGO. Last time I looked, the forum was quiet and full of spam.I think for a magazine to thrive these days, it needs a strong web presence. Neither Trail nor TGO have that. Not yet, at least. TGO's alliance with Outdoorsmagic was working well for a time. Chris Townsend, John Manning and Cameron McNeish were fairly regular contributors and that was a good thing. I bought many issues of the mag as a result of some of the threads on OM. But they slipped away and set up shop on their own. A shame as OM is still the best outdoors-related website out there.

I'll watch with interest how the sites develop over the next wee while. I might even contribute from time to time because that's what it's all about; folk contributing and keeping the forums alive. Success depends on keeping the punters engaged and you can't do that with a half-arsed website.